The subject of head injuries in sport is in the news again.

I think the more exposure that these types of injuries get is actually great for the grassroots game, because it raises much-needed awareness of the often unseen dangers lurking.

I’m referring to the England rugby players, Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes, who, because of a recent concussion, were a doubt for the big game today against South Africa.

Now, for me to dive deep into all the different rules and regulations of how to deal with head injuries wouldn’t be appropriate via this column, but what I can do is tell you a story of a player I once had to tend to on the pitch when working at Darlington Football Club.

The player had suffered a blast to his face by the ball and left medical staff at the ground unsure as to whether he’d been knocked out.

The player shall remain anonymous, because the story could get quite embarrassing and soon you’ll see why.

It was midway through a game against Rochdale a few years back.

The player was hit in the face enough to knock him straight to the ground.

He went down instantly but by the time I’d got to him, he was alert and able to talk to me about what he was feeling.

We took him off the field to let the doctor inspect him as per protocol and he checked him over for concussion and looked for any sign of a serious head injury. A few minutes later he was passed fit – there was no computer-based concussion test at Rochdale that day.

But then we noticed a few strange things happening to the player. His passes were going astray (more than usual!) and for a period of about five minutes, the manager was shouting at him more and more as he was wondering way out of position.

And then this happened…he began to pass the ball the wrong way. He was so disorientated 15 minutes after the blast to his face that he thought he was playing for the other team!

Minutes later, he was removed from the field. And because the doctor on the day was busy dealing with another incident, the player, a right winger with great pace, had to come and sit on the bench with me, because he couldn’t be left alone for fear of him passing out or vomiting (two dangerous side effects of any head injury).

What happened next was something I’d never ever seen before. The player was now so disorientated he began to cheer for the OTHER team thinking that he had signed for them.

Moreover, he rose to his feet to celebrate when THEY scored a header from a corner.

As you can imagine, the rest of the players on the bench (and the manager) weren’t too impressed. But then, as it went on more and more, with any sympathy absent, they couldn’t help but find the funny side of a player on their team shouting support for the opposition.

The player also began to talk about certain things that were not in his usual vocabulary, which amused the players even more and this went on for about another ten minutes with all the fans behind us completely oblivious to what was happening.

Now, it was never unsafe, it was just a temporary disorientated phase that his brain was experiencing while recovering from the blast.

By the end of the game he’d fully recovered from the confusion, and aside from a LOT of ribbing by the players on the bus on the way home, he was fine.

He couldn’t remember anything about it, but he suffered no further side effects and a week or so later was back involved.

So the moral of the story is this: head injuries affect different players in different ways and if you or any of your players suffer one, it pays to air on the side of caution.

This player was checked out by a medical doctor and declared okay to carry on – and it was the wrong decision. Don’t afford yourself the chance to get it wrong. If in doubt, the player should come off the field and go straight to hospital for a check-up.